Responsible gambling is becoming one of the most important focal points of the gambling industry.
South Africa is no exception, as lawmakers, operators, and players are clamoring for better consumer protection measures that help steer players away from harm and educate them about sustainable practices that maximize the fun while minimizing the risks.
It’s not just lawmakers or operators who can help build a responsible gambling framework. Players have a role to play as well, not least by learning more about the possible ways they can benefit from responsible play. For example, websites such as Roulette77 outline how to play responsibly while trying games such as roulette.
Yet, there are universal rules that will help you stay safe no matter what type of game you have picked. Let’s take a look at how you can bet safely in South Africa and what universal pieces of advice you can apply to your own game. We will talk about:
- Budgeting
- Pacing Yourself
- Making Informed Choices
Playing Responsibly in South Africa: Budgeting Smartly
The first thing you need to learn about responsible gambling is that it all comes down to simple rules. After all, it’s hard to resist temptation and much easier to create a rule where temptation will not appear, and you won’t have to worry about resisting it in the first place.
This may seem a little hackneyed, agreed, but developing a good budgeting habit can help you in more walks of life than you imagine. A budget in gambling means that you have an allocated sum of money to play with. Depending on your income, this can be a daily, weekly, or monthly.
In other words, you cannot spend more than your allocated budget, and once you develop the habit of budgeting smartly, you will find yourself resisting temptation and gambling more responsibly.
After all, if you deplete your budget, you cannot play more in the allocated time period, and this is a good and healthy attitude. What a good budget for your gambling depends on the type of game you are playing – is it online roulette? It also depends on how much money you can allocate for recreational activities – i.e. your disposable income.
It’s important to take note of both when tailoring your budget so that you will be actually able to extend your sessions. By playing on a budget, you don’t only play responsibly, but you will get greater satisfaction from the experience, as you will be able to position yourself in a way that allows you to appreciate your every spin or even take on a little less risk to get more out of your money!
Starting Small and Pacing Yourself
As we have noticed, budgeting is an important part of the experience. Budgeting can also be an important life skill – if you learn to live within a budget, you will automatically save up more for retirement, or even retire early – in a sense, budgeting is an essential skill of life and definitely a good skill to have when gambling.
Yet, it’s not just about budgeting. It’s about self-restraint and knowing and appreciating every bet you place. There is no need to put aside a huge budget even if you can afford it.
Rather, you should start small. This applies not just to responsible gambling but also to roulette strategies, for example. Did you know that Martingale, a system that allows you to mitigate risk, will be far more efficient if you place small bets – even if you can afford to place big ones?
Pacing also has a role to play. You want to ensure you are not overspending or taking on too many risks, even when winning. Pacing means taking a few risks when you feel the time is right rather than getting caught in the moment and betting without consideration of the potential outcome of your bet.
This is why in order to bet responsibly and bet safely, you will need to learn both these concepts and how they can help you really pull ahead.
Informed Choices Matter
Much in a similar vein to what has already been said, it’s important to make informed choices. What this means is that you need to understand what you are engaging with – for example, if you are gambling in a game of roulette and using a specific system, you need to understand how this works.
You also need to understand what the house edge is, for example, and why you are statistically not very likely to win. Yet, when you are taking all of these things into account, you will approach any game of chance with a much deeper understanding.
After all, you want to bet responsibly and get the most out of your gaming session and money, and this means acknowledging that while risk-taking is a lot of fun and even more so in gambling, you need to approach the subject matter at hand in a more balanced way.
Don’t Be Afraid to Seek Help
Lastly but just as importantly, you will need to learn that looking for help is not shameful. Many good people can get a little carried away by their gambling sessions, and they will often fear that they can end up being called out by the public for their problematic behaviour with gambling.
Yet, getting help is very important, and there are tons of resources in South Africa that allow you to do just that – you can exclude yourself from gambling websites or, if you prefer, you can just as simply focus on getting help from an official service that is usually for free.
Many operators are also offering to exclude you for various periods – a week, a month, or even longer, and you can always set limits on how much you spend with gambling websites in South Africa, all with the aim of playing safely and responsibly.